The Manor

Every family comes with a legacy.

Some are defined by talent, others are defined by prosperity. As years pass these legacies have an unusual way of defining a family’s relationship with its community, and the family members’ relationship with one-another. Some legacies can be a source of pride, others a source of shame.

So what should one expect from a family whose legacy is running a strip club, and what effect can such a lifeblood have on the family who prospers from it?

THE MANOR is director Shawn Cohen’s attempt to make sense of his immediate family dynamic. The family calls Guelph, Ontario home, a town of approximately 125,000 people. At the centre of this family’s universe is The Manor; the strip club and motel they have owned and operated for more than twenty years. The strip club has allowed them to live somewhat large in this small town, but is, strangely, only peripheral to the central problems the family faces.

In his mid-30’s, Shawn is returning home to help out at The Manor during a tough time for his family. The troubles begin with Roger, the overbearing patriarch about to undergo stomach surgery in an effort to get his weight under control. The troubles extend to Brenda, the matriarch who has nothing to do with the family business, and comes with her own complicated attitude towards food. It’s all rounded out by Sammy, Shawn’s younger brother who has taken to the family business to the extent that he is now dating a former dancer.

What’s fascinating about The Manor is the way it is less about a family running a strip club, and more about a family trying to get a grip on its identity now that everyone is grown. Relationships are redefined and continually tested, having progressed to a point where oddity has given way to disfunction. Running a strip club is a business that inherently comes with dishonesty and deceit, so should we be surprised when that trickles over into the family’s relationship with one-another? Just look at their big house and fancy cars – the family seems to be living the high life. It’s easy to forget that they are in fact just living large in a very small circle. That sort of self-deception can be infectious.

Considering the downer of the situation, it could have been easy for Cohen to have painted his family portrait with a bleak brush. Happily though, THE MANOR plays out with doses of wry humour that help carry the audience through. The film’s wit is obviously an extension of Cohen’s understanding of the absurdity of the situation. After all, many of us grow up around a family business; not many of those family businesses involve needing to settle disputes between scantily clad women. One suspects that such moments eventually became “just another day at the office” for Cohen, and knowing just how weird that is is palpable in his film.

THE MANOR reminds us that strip clubs are supposed to offer illusions and escapes…for a price. Anyone who frequents them can get a few drinks into their system, and lust over women they can’t have. The price on these escapes is deceptively high, but that is true for both the clientele and the proprietors. Sooner or later, everything comes due, and for The Cohens that time has come. This film is clearly Shawn Cohen’s attempt at settling accounts.

MANOR opens Hot Docs 2013 tomorrow, Thursday April 25 – 9:30pm at The Bloor. It plays again on Monday April 29th – 12pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox.